Jesusita Dykhoff: Here's the most important piece of advice I can give you: Make sure you have the heart and the passion for teaching children with special needs. That's the most essential quality, and you can't acquire it by taking classes. If you have the passion to teach special education students, you can learn all the necessary procedures and protocols. I would say that the main issue a beginning teacher should understand - and this applies to general ed as well as special ed - is that you need to establish a clear and consistent classroom management plan from the very first day of school. You need to teach the kids what the procedures are: where do they put their backpacks? What do they do with homework or notes from their parents? When are they allowed to get up and move around the room, and when do they need to sit at their desk? How do they get your attention when they have a question? Take the time to teach all the procedures in your classroom and then! teaching of content, or subject matter, flows much more easily.Every new job is hard, with lots of things to learn and mistakes to be made. Don't worry too much about that - as I tell my student teachers and intern teachers, you will learn a lot more from situations that didn't go the way you planned them than you do when everything goes perfectly. Mistakes happen to all of us, so you learn from them and move on.In my state, California, the Department of Education has a program called Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) that pairs new teachers with veteran teachers. As a BTSA support teacher, I meet weekly with my intern, and we work on everything the new teacher wants help with: writing IEPs, behavior management strategies, lesson plans, activities and materials, etc, etc. My intern can also call or email me at any time if issues arise between our weekly meetings.I am not sure what systems are in place in other states, but I am sure that the special ed ad! ministrator will be very interested in seeing that you write I! EPs properly, since they are a legal document. They will certainly send you to trainings, and I am certain that they will give you resources to assist you, no matter where you are working.Are you going to do student teaching? In some places, like CA, there are alternate paths to getting your credential, but I would highly recommend student teaching if you are somewhat inexperienced and lacking confidence. As a student teacher, you get to gradually take on the duties of the teacher, and that includes IEPs. You work directly with a master teacher in the classroom, so you have his or her support, as well as their example.The first year of teaching is the hardest. Almost every new teacher questions whether or not they have made a terrible mistake in going into teaching and whether or not they will actually survive the situation. But if you have the passion for it, don't get scared off by the hard times. The rewards are worth the pain. And it doesn't take long before the ! pleasures of the job far outweigh the pains....Show more
Dannie Briseno: it depends on the types of kids and the program you teach in.I have worked with some of the most disturbed kids in the country (the school took in profoundly disturbed kids from all over Canada) to the gifted to mild mentally handicapped to the profoundly handicapped. The toughest was with the emotionally disturbed kids. We had sex offenders, drug addicts, prostitutes, and extremely violent teens up to early 20s (the center housed a detox program). My favorite group so far is the higher functioning mentally handicapped kids (like a class of mini Forest Gumps) Most of these kids are eager to please, fun loving and appreciative. That's what I teach now. I have a Junior high class (gr 7-8-9) with 11 kids, I have 1 1/2 assistants, I NEVER take home lesson planning or marking. I love my kids, my classroom and my job. It doesn't get much better. I make my own curriculum, The pace of the lesson depends ! on the day/ kids and my choice.....We have pizza/movie parties 1x each ! month, We do a lot of field trips.... I have structured and free play time daily with the kids..... It's great!!! You see them develop and progress over time and they will remember you forever (I have had many come up in later years) The downside.... I do IEPs on each kid(20 minutes/ kid/ a year!), have specialist meetings (1/month) and have the kids most of the day in my class.... for 3 years which sucks if it is an annoying kid!) If you are looking into education, it would be wise to volunteer or observe in several different types of spec. ed classes to get the jest of it. I have taught regular elementary and a few different regular and special ed high school classes. To me, this is the best! I find there are more jobs available and you don't burn out fast (unless you're working with the hard to handle ones) Hope you go there. They need good people...Good luck!...Show more
Stormy Beliard: Lack of available funding to provide all the children with all the help they n! eed!
Kirk Coolbeth: I work as a school psychologist in a major urban US city in the Northeast, and have a good deal of interaction with special ed teachers. The main issue I see for special ed teachers is burn out. They service so many children, and have very little support. I think the IEP issue varies between districts. The district I am in, the IEP is developed by a district administrator, based on reports submitted by various people (the special ed teacher, the school psych, the OT, the PT, the speech pathologist, etc). The district offers training to special ed teachers on how to do the assessments, and what is expected of them. Over all, I think if you have any questions about services the staff is more than happy to help. Good luck!...Show more
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